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Sputnik Movie Review

Sputnik is a 2020 science fiction horror film directed by Egor Abramenko and starring Oksana Akinshina. It’s such a strong genre picture.

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“I now know why it chose you“

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Summoned to a secluded research facility, a controversial young doctor examines a cosmonaut who returned to Earth with an alien parasite inside of him. This movie represents everything that I like as its influences are truly magnificent. Initially, ‘Alien’ springs to mind due to the creature somewhat resembling the Xenomorph. But later down the line, ‘Parasyte’ becomes a much bigger influence.

Having in mind that that show is one of my favorite anime series of all time, I knew I was in for a treat, and although this movie clearly doesn’t explore its symbiote premise as thoroughly as that anime, still there are some great themes to be found here with its most complex issue being the moral dilemma of killing the most atrocious criminals.

Sputnik is at first a very sophisticated science fiction film that avoids the clichés of the genre by focusing more extensively on the subject matter in hand, in particular the differences between parasite and symbiot organisms. As a biology enthusiast myself, I hugely appreciated the film’s emphasis on the actual science behind his premise as we get a lot of details about the mechanisms behind this alien organism and how it functions.

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With that being said, there is one thing that really affected this movie negatively and that is the third act. As I have stated above, Sputnik is a clever, intellectual film, but unfortunately in the third act it resorted to standard blockbuster clichés such as chase scenes, military personnel being over-the-top in their villainy and the action-heavy conclusion that sacrificed the movie’s previous intellectual, hard SF streak. I still really liked the movie, but this section of it impacted it so negatively that I was quite disappointed.

I mostly loved the characters. The only exception is Colonel Semiradov who is such a theatrical villain that he did not fit this usually more sophisticated movie at all. He was a competent obstacle, but still he should have been painted with less broad strokes. The highlights are the main characters – Konstantin and Tatyana. Konstantin beginning to feel no remorse or empathy for others due to the symbiote inside of him was so well explored and that relationship between the two was the film’s most interesting focal point. Tatyana herself is awesome, empathetic, badass and also a complex human being with her various dilemmas being perfectly explored.

The performances are also terrific, especially those of Okanshina and Fyodorov. Bondarchuk is also very good, but again his role is not great. My favorite scenes in the movie are the conversations between the two main characters and the research scenes that explain how the organism functions, those are excellent and so fascinating. My least favorite are the action scenes, but even they are very well executed and thrilling, though again far from inspired.

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Sputnik is technically terrific, in particular in its alien organism as it looks splendid. It’s absolutely disgusting, slimy and quite creepy. Some scenes are very intense and scary, especially the first encounter between Tatyana and the creature. The movie is also well paced, quite well directed and very well written, especially in its dialogue. I just wish that they had landed the ending itself.